Volunteers in Mission - April 2006

Juarez Team Completes Successful Trip

By Roy Hakes

St. Matthews welcomed home the VIM team from another successful mission trip to Juarez, Mexico from April 22 to April 28. We had a terrific team of eight volunteers, who overcame our limited numbers and built a fine block house in just 3 and a half days. We had three team members who were new to missions: Jeanette Halleran, Nicole Ricketts, and Suzanne Sweet. Five of us, Elizabeth Hardy, Joe Livermore, Melissa Neace, Dick Stetler, and Roy Hakes, had been to Juarez before. For all of us this was a wonderful chance to act out God’s love by taking our time, energy, and (for some of us, unskilled) talents to a place where people’s material needs are unfathomably great compared to what we see here in a well-off suburb of a wealthy city in the richest country on earth.

I knew we had a great team when we got to the site on Monday morning, met the family, and started mixing concrete. Mixing by hand on plywood on the ground is an exhausting job, but without exception, everyone pitched in. I think we probably mixed and moved several tons of concrete when all was said and done. The father of the family was in there with us the first day too, and we were ably directed, albeit only in Spanish, by the two Mexican maestros. By the end of the day, we had laid the foundation, and built the wall up to nearly five feet. At that point, any doubt that just the eight of us would be able to finish the job was entirely gone. And finish we did – by about eleven Thursday morning. The final day of building was very special. We gave the family a Bible, put the roof on the house, and then enjoyed a delicious lunch prepared for us by the lady of the house. Finally, we were able to present them with keys to their new house.

One of the wonderful parts of these mission trips is being part of a group of people working on something together for other people, with no relation to any possible gain for yourself. This is an extraordinary experience, and really lets you live the notion of being part of a team. This trip was no exception: our team members forged bonds with each other and with the family we were with every day for a week. The youngest of their three sons had some developmental issues, and several of the team members gave him a lot of attention, on which he thrived. One of the most special moments for me was on the second to last day, when he sat with a neighbor, and was saying over and over in Spanish “Look at the house, look at the house!”. We at St. Matthews are fortunate to be able to reach out and touch other people’s lives with God’s love, and we on the team thank all of you for your support and prayers.